Toyota Motor Corp is considering a reboot of its electric-vehicle (EV) strategy to better compete in a booming market it has been slow to enter, and has halted some work on existing projects, four people with knowledge of the still-developing plans said.
The proposals under review, if adopted, would amount to a dramatic shift for Toyota and rewrite the US$38 billion EV rollout plan the Japanese automaker announced last year to better compete with the likes of Tesla Inc.
A working group within Toyota has been charged with outlining plans by early next year for improvements to its existing EV platform or for a new architecture, the four individuals said.
Photo: REUTERS
In the meantime, Toyota has suspended work on some of the 30 EV projects announced in December last year, which, according to sources, and an internal document reviewed by Reuters, include the Toyota Compact Cruiser crossover and the battery-electric Crown.
Toyota said it was committed to carbon neutrality, but declined to comment on specific initiatives.
“In order to achieve carbon neutrality, Toyota’s own technology — as well as the work we are doing with a range of partners and suppliers — is essential,” the company said in response to questions.
The revamp under consideration could slow the rollout of EVs already on the drawing board, but it would also give Toyota a chance to compete with a more efficient manufacturing process, as industry-wide EV sales run past Toyota’s earlier projections.
In addition, it would address criticism by green investors and environmental groups who argue that Toyota, once a darling of environmentalists, has been too slow to embrace EVs.
As part of the review, Toyota is considering a successor to its EV-underpinning technology called e-TNGA, unveiled in 2019.
That would allow Toyota to bring down costs, the sources said.
The first EV based on e-TNGA — the bZ4X crossover — hit the market earlier this year, although its launch was marred by a recall that forced Toyota to suspend production from June. Production resumed earlier this month.
The review was triggered in part by the realization by some Toyota engineers and executives that Toyota was losing the factory cost war to Tesla on EVs, the sources said.
Toyota’s planning had assumed demand for EVs would not take off for several decades, the four people said.
However, sales of EVs are growing faster. Automakers globally forecast plans for EVs to represent more than half of total vehicle production by 2030, part of a wave of industry-wide investment that totals US$1.2 trillion.
Toyota is working with suppliers and considering factory innovations to bring down costs like Tesla’s Giga Press, a massive casting machine that has streamlined work in Tesla plants.
One area under review is a more comprehensive approach to an EV’s thermal management — combining, for example, passenger air-conditioning and electric powertrain temperature control — that Tesla has already mobilized, the sources said.
This could allow Toyota to reduce the size and weight of an EV battery pack and cut costs by thousands of dollars per vehicle, making it a “top priority” for Toyota suppliers Denso Corp and Aisin Seiki Co, one of the sources familiar with the matter said.
Denso and Aisin had no immediate comment.
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